On October 11, 2024, we had a group lunch at Mala Sichuan Bistro (Westheimer) to welcome our two new on-campus PhD students, Fan Jiang and Linhan Fang. This is the first time we had a group meal at an off-campus restaurant. After lunch, we went to the Gaming Room at Student Center South, our third time there.
Figure 1. Group photo at the Beginning of the lunch, eight of us.
Figure 2. Group photo at the End of the lunch, with alumnus Arun joined us.
Figure 3. Billiard.
Figure 4. Ping Pong.
It was a great experience to serve as a judge and interact with talent middle/junior and high/senior school students at the 65th Science & Engineering Fair of Houston (SEFH) in February 2024. SEFH brings middle and high school students from all over southeast Texas together to compete annually in different STEM fields.
Figure: SEFH Front Look.
Figure: SEFH Schedule.
Figure: Group of Judges for Energy & Transportation.
Figure: Judging…
Figure: UH College of Engineering is a sponsor for SEFH.
Figure: A big picture of the event/competition.
Cunzhi Zhao attended his PhD graduation commencement today on December 16, 2023. It was a once-in-a-lifetime ceremony especially the awarded degree is the highest doctoral degree in engineering. Congratulations again! Cunzhi completed his PhD Defense on November 7, 2023 and graduated in the same semester.
Here are some photos we took today.
Figure 1. Hooding.
Figure 2. Hooding 2.
Figure 3. Photo before hooding.
Figure 4. Graduates Waiting Area.
Figure 5. Begining of the Commencement - Dean’s speech.
This year is our 2nd time to have a Group Thanksgiving Party at our home. It's good for the team to take a break from busy research work and have some fun together. In addition to almost all the current members, two alumni also joined us!
We had good dinner and then played UNO and Texas hold'em Poker. I wanted to thank my wife here for preparing all the food! We had the kabob, lamb, beef, pork, chicken, duck, baked sweet potato, corn, garlic naan, cheese cake, snacks, fruits, soft drinks, and beer...
A few group photos were taken as attached below.
Figure 1. Game Time - UNO. (People from me in clockwise around the table: Xingpeng Li, Qianxue Xia, Jin Lu, Amaze Anna Toms, Ann Mary Toms, Jesus Silva-Rodriguez, Cunzhi Zhao, Arun Venkatesh Ramesh, Elias Raffoul, Rida Fatima, Hassan Zahid Butt)
Figure 2. Game Time - Texas Poker - Last Round.
Figure 3. Dinner Time. (People from left to right: Elias Raffoul, Jesus Silva-Rodriguez, Hassan Zahid Butt, Ann Mary Toms, Rida Fatima, Amaze Anna Toms, Qianxue Xia, Jin Lu, Arun Venkatesh Ramesh, Cunzhi Zhao)
Figure 4. Dinner Buffet - food after one round…
Arun attended his PhD graduation commencement today on May 13, 2023. It was a once-in-a-lifetime ceremony especially the awarded degree is the highest doctoral degree in engineering. Congratulations again! Arun completed his PhD Defense on December 1, 2022 and graduated in the same semester.
Here are some photos we took today.
Figure 1. Ceremony Stage.
Figure 2. Selfie.
Figure 3. Hooding.
Figure 4. Before the ceremony.
Figure 5. Before the ceremony 2.
On January 27, 2023, we had a long day event from 1pm-10pm. Starting from our monthly Group Meeting at 1pm, then Dinner at Hilton Eric's Restaurant at 5pm, and lastly the Gaming event at 6:30pm. This was our second Fun Event at the Gaming Room at Student Center South.
Next time, we plan to go to an off-campus restaurant and try something different!
Figure 1. Group photo in the ECE Large Conference Room.
With ALL thesis-based 10 PhD and 1 MS (9 current PhD, 1 graduated PhD & 1 graduated MS) in our team!
People from left to right and then from top to bottom:
Mingjian Tuo, Rida Fatima, Ann Mary Toms, Jesus Silva-Rodriguez, Cunzhi Zhao, Thuan Pham, Arun Venkatesh Ramesh, Xingpeng Li, Ali Siddique, Jin Lu, Qiushi Wang, Lei Jiang.
Figure 2. Group Dinner at the on-campus Hilton Eric’s Restaurant.
Figure 3. Laser Bowling at the Gaming Room at Student Center South.
Figure 4. Bowling at the Gaming Room at Student Center South.
Figure 5. Billiard at the Gaming Room at Student Center South.
This was our first Fun Event except for group lunch/dinners. We had a lot of fun at the on-campus UH Gaming Room at Student Center South.
We reserved 2 pooling tables for 4 hours from 5pm-9pm and 2 bowling lanes for 2 hours from 6pm-8pm. We prepared 4 large pizza, a large bag of different snacks, packs of 30 soft drink cans. My wife also helped prepare 10 gifting bags with various snacks including mooncakes; and three of them have something special as extra little bonuses. This is the first time we provide mooncakes after Covid-19 started. The last time we did it, it was three years ago in September 2019.
We really enjoyed it and look forward to having a second fun event!
Figure 1. Group photo taken at the front door of a pooling table at UH Gaming Room. (People from left to right: Arun Venkatesh Ramesh, Jin Lu, Mingjian Tuo, Xingpeng Li, Cunzhi Zhao, Ali Siddique, Jesus Silva-Rodriguez, and Thuan Pham)
Figure 2. Blowing. (‘RPG’ People from left to right: Jesus Silva-Rodriguez, Amaze Anna Toms, Qianxue Xia, Arun Venkatesh Ramesh, and Thuan Pham)
Figure 3. Biliards. (‘Acting’ People from left to right, then, top to bottom: Mingjian Tuo, Arun Venkatesh Ramesh, Xingpeng Li, and Jin Lu)
Figure 4. Thanks to my wife. We prepared 10 gift bags full of various snacks including mooncakes! This is the first time we provide mooncakes after Covid-19 started. The last time we did it, it was three years ago in September 2019.
Although the UH campus has fully opened since Fall 2021, most people in our group still work in a remote mode. It is time to get back to campus and mingle with each other in person rather than just 'meet' online. After the start of the Covid-19 in March 2020, we now decide to have the group (for those who live in the Houston area) to come back to the campus. Well, at least, come to the lab 2-3 days a week, among which a common day everyone comes is Tuesdays.
We started today with a group lunch at Eric's resturant in the UH Hilton hotel. This lunch is also a celebration lunch for Ali Siddique who defended his master's thesis on April 22, 2022 and graduated this May. Ali Siddique is the first (MS) student who graduated with a (MS) thesis in our group - the RPG Lab!
We also plan to have a group fun event (maybe one afternoon) this summer!
Two group photos were taken (i) at the front door of Eric's resturant and (ii) around with a UH Cougar nearby:
Figure 1. Group photo taken at the front door of Eric’s resturant at UH Hilton hotel. (People from left to right: Jin Lu, Arun Venkatesh Ramesh, Mingjian Tuo, Xingpeng Li, Ali Siddique, Jesus Silva-Rodriguez, and Vasudharini Sridharan)
Figure 2. Group photo taken with a UH Cougar. (People from left to right: Xingpeng Li, Mingjian Tuo, Jin Lu, Ali Siddique, Jesus Silva-Rodriguez, Vasudharini Sridharan, and Arun Venkatesh Ramesh)